swappng motor parts
Asked by Corey Jan 17, 2016 at 07:43 PM about the 1999 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 LS Extended Cab RWD
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
i have a 1997 chevy silverado down with fuel
problems and an 89 gmc sierra with transmission
out. since the transmissions wont swap can i swap
intakes? or whatever?
8 Answers
No you can't. The 97' is a Vortec motor, 89' a TBI set-up. Not compatible..
The intake won't bolt on the heads, after 96 they changed the intake bolt pattern.
Bad idea . You will have problems with the engine computer trying to mix and match parts.
Save yourself a lot of head-aches, fix the 97', would be cheaper in the long run. To make that 89' motor run you would have to re-wire the truck in either case.
You want the 89 motor in a 97? Ok, you need wither a vortec intake with a tbi adapter or swap the tbi heads on the motor as well. Now if the tbi heads go on the 97 block you have lower your co pression ratio due to the fact the 97 heads have a smaller volume, the inly way to fix that is to change the pistons out as well or run with a slug of a truck. You will need to change the 97 fuel pump because it puts out way too much pressure for the tbi unit to handle. You will need to convert the wiring harness completly inside and out from the 89 over to the 97. You will need the trans from the 89 as well, because the 89 ecu isn't set up to run a electronic transmission at all. In short what you really need to do is sell one and fix the other. $600 to $900 to rebuild the 89's trans or less than $500 will replace both the fuel pump and injectors on the 97. I'm assuming you will be doing the labor yourself, because if you couldn't do those things then you sure won't be up to the challenge of making a 97 truck an 89. BTW in my area you could get at least $600 if you sold one of those for parts, depending on what kind of shape it's in.
